Having survived a worldwide pandemic, the gray-haired pensioners, legionnaires and veterans gathered once again Monday – after a two-year hiatus – at the intersection of Broad and Fourth streets for Memorial Day.
A color guard from Fort Gordon raised the flags of America, state of Georgia and MIA/POW National League of Families to half-mast at the small park in the middle of Broad Street that is home to the All Wars Memorial statue. A rifle team fired a 21-gun salute.
There was Michael Culbertson, a retired Army sergeant major, whose voice broke as he led the crowd in singing “God Bless America.”
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Culbertson said he became emotional at the song’s last few notes remembering his father, a career Navy man, who had recently died. He also remembered his 30 colleagues and friends who had died at the Pentagon during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
“I think it’s important to remember the people who left and didn’t come home,” Culbertson said.
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There was Albert Boudy, a Vietnam-era Army veteran who remembers the men from his basic training platoon who died in Vietnam.
“I feel we owe it to them, to remember them,” Boudy said.
There was Col. James Turinetti IV, the commandant for the U.S. Army Signal School at Fort Gordon and the head of the Army’s Signal Corps. He stood when a speaker asked for anyone in the audience to stand who had lost friends or family members in any of America’s wars. Turinetti was also the guest speaker for Monday’s event.
“I’m honored to be with you here today as we take the opportunity to stop and take time to think about the brave Americans who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our great nation,” Turinetti said.
He spoke about how Memorial Day began May 30, 1868, following the Civil War and was originally called Decoration Day. Then, as now, Americans decorated the graves of those who died in battle with flowers and flags.
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There were also the impatient and ungrateful at Fourth and Broad. A man who threw open his window to scream an expletive because of the noise of the 21-gun salute, an impatient driver who honked while driving by, groups of bicyclists who pedaled past the memorial ceremony, intent on taking advantage of the extra day off from work with a ride down empty, scenic streets in downtown Augusta.
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Culbertson said it’s common for people in peacetime to forget the men and women in America’s military who give up time with families, easy to forget the service members who leave broken and beat from years of hard, physical work and all too easy to forget those who died defending America.
“When you feel safe going to the grocery store, or driving a hundred miles going to some place, you don’t think about the thousands of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who are out making it really hard for bad guys to get to us,” Culbertson said. “I am still really mad about Sept. 11, and a lot of people don’t even think about it anymore.”
Joshua B. Good is a staff reporter covering Columbia County and military/veterans’ issues for The Augusta Press. Reach him at joshua@theaugustapress.com
